Back on the Block Ch. 01

"Even the nice men I met when I lived on the farm. If they took me out to eat or to a movie, the next thing I knew their hands were on my titties or under my skirt. Now I understand what my mama meant when she told me that men like my Daddy were too rare to replace, so she may as well find a son of a bitch who could take care of us. Last week when I made my decision, I went out to find my first customer. I was only going to do blowjobs, because both of the two times that I've been fucked were against my will, and it hurt both times. Anyway before I actually got a customer, I got arrested. So I now have an arrest record for solicitation and no way to pay the fine. But also in the eyes of the law I am now a prostitute." She looked up at me then. "Okay you've heard the short version of my tragic saga, so let's get to talking about your deal, because I'm starting to get sleepy. I don't think you want to fuck me while I'm asleep, but if that's your kink, it could probably happen. I've been fed bathed and I'm warm. You don't know how relaxed I am right now."

"Victoria, I think you have the wrong idea about me and what I want," I told her. "I guess I led you to that conclusion because I was trying to scare you when you first got here. But that was partly your fault, because you were being such an asshole. My name is Jason, I'm a normal guy. I don't think I'm weird or kinky at all. I have a good job, I really try to be nice to people, but I'm just really lonely.

I got divorced a while back. It was rough, it was long and it took a lot out of me. My ex wife is beautiful, rich , spoiled, conniving and a cast iron bitch. We got divorced because from the time we were dating, she's been cheating on me. I was stupid at first, so when I caught her before we were married, I believed her when she told me that it wasn't what I thought. But a little over a year ago I came home early from work and caught her doing it in our own bed. Even when I caught her she schemed and planned and did everything she could to avoid divorcing me. She even tried to get pregnant and lock me into staying married to her. So I haven't dated or had sex with anyone other than a porno movie and my right hand in nearly a year. I guess I have trust issues now when it comes to women because Dana really hurt me bad." She was shaking her head as I said this.

"So tonight I'd decided that I just didn't want to be alone anymore. I've never even spoken to a prostitute before you." I laughed as I said that part. "Anyway here's my deal, I want to hire you, but not the way you think. I'll pay you 30,000 dollars to live with me for a year. At the end of the year we can both go our separate ways. I think it'll be good for both of us. For you it'll mean you have a place to stay and be safe, food of course, and you'll end up with more than enough money to get yourself an apartment or go to school or do whatever you want." I noticed that she was sitting straight up on the couch now."

"We can iron out all of the details in the morning if you're really sleepy," I said.

"Hell no, let's talk now," she said. "You'll pay me Thirty thousand dollars, to live with you for a year? Are you serious?"

"Yes," I said. "Isn't that enough?"

"Okay what do I have to do for you," she asked suspiciously.

"You know the usual stuff," I said. "Talking to me, oh and the cooking, you have to do the cooking too. And the shopping."

"Nuh unh, we do the shopping together," she said, "What about the cleaning? Do I have to do the cleaning too?"

"Nope, we have a cleaning lady. She comes in twice a week," I added. "But you will have to go out with me sometimes. We do have a bunch of company events where I'd need you to be charming and pretend to like me. But if you did a good enough job at them I could see giving you a bonus." I said.

"What about personal time off," she asked. "What if I need time to do something?"

"Well as long as you're discreet, It would be Okay," I said, noticing that she looked at me funny.

"What the hell are you talking about, Jason?" she asked pointedly.

"Well if someone that I know or work with, saw you out on a date, it would make them think I'd found another woman who was cheating on me." I said.

"When I said time off, I meant to like go and visit my mom, idiot," she laughed. "I don't have a boyfriend or anyone to date, I'm a prostitute remember.

"Okay what about clothes and stuff," she began. She seemed to be excited about the idea.

"Well, when it comes to parties or special events I'll pay for your clothes, but other than that I'll advance you as much money as you want for expenses but your personal items come out of your salary." I said. She appeared to be thinking about it.

"You're a cheap fake boyfriend," she laughed. "I..." she began.

"Okay I'll pay for your clothes too and you can drive the Jeep," I said. I was losing this negotiation far faster then I'd expected.

"Okay that's better," she smiled, "But that wasn't even what I was asking about. The way I see it, there are four things we still need to discuss. Number one, what happens at the end of a year and why did you pick a year?"

"I figured at the end of a year you'll have thirty grand, and be ready to do something with your life. I'd also possibly be ready to try for a real relationship again. At thirty two I'm still young enough to get married and have some kids." I said.

"What if you're not ready to try a real relationship yet or I want more money?" she asked.

"Then I guess we could re-negotiate and I'm sure you'd expect more money," I said, "But a year is a long time, let's see what happens."

"Number 2, we're going to all of your company events, what about non company events or if I want to do something?" she asked. "I'm from a small town, and an even smaller more isolated farming community, I might like to go out and do some things, so in order to preserve our fake relationship and not have people see me out alone or with some other guy, Will there be times when my fake boyfriend takes me out on dates and lets me pick? She asked.

"We can do that, but for every one that you get, I get a non company date too," I said.

"Number 3," she said. "How often do I have to have sex with you?" she asked.

"I already told you I had and still no intentions of raping you," I said seriously.

She stuck out her hand and I grabbed it and we shook on the deal. "What about number 4?" I asked.

"Where do I sleep?" she asked.

"Uhm you did say the bed was huge." I grinned. We separated the bed into two halves by placing a line of pillows down its center. Victoria fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. I awoke early as I always did and found myself lying in bed staring at her for a while. I wondered whether or not I'd made a huge mistake. I went out by the interior door. There was a coffee shop in the building's main lobby, I stopped in and got three French vanilla blends, and 2 big sugary glazed donuts. I gave one of the coffees and a giant donut to the building's doorman Pete.

"Hey Pete later on I've got someone I want you to meet," I told him. I dashed back inside the loft and tried to figure out what I'd be doing in a few weeks when the snow came down. I had pretty much given my jeep to my new fake girlfriend and my Stangs didn't really like the snow, and I wasn't going to subject them to it.

I ran up the stairs and jotted down a quick note telling Victoria that it wasn't too late to back out of our deal, but if she wanted to, there was $500 dollars on the kitchen counter, and to have a nice life.

I also mentioned that we'd be shopping all afternoon so she should be dressed and ready to go when I got back at noon. I left her my cell phone number as well. She was rolled up in a tight little ball with the blankets all over her lightly snoring. She had the covers pulled tightly up to her chin, and that hair was all over the place. If it was the last thing I did I was getting those fucking blonde streaks taken out of her hair. On impulse I leaned over and kissed her lightly on her forehead. Then I threw another blanket over her because it would be a little bit colder in here for a few minutes.

I got into the Black Mustang mostly because it was slightly quieter and I was really trying not to wake her. But I didn't see any movement from her as the garage door opened.

Half of my office staff stared at me as I got off the elevator. I was sipping my coffee as I walked towards my office. Less than 5 minutes after I sat down in front of my computer, I heard the sounds of high heels clicking angrily down the hall. They barely paused as they hit my outer office, I heard a brief exchange of angry words starting with, "You can't go in there without permission, you're not married to him anymore," and ending in a different voice saying, "Fuck you." I didn't bother to look up as my door was opened and then slammed loudly and hard enough that the frame shook and the sound echoed throughout the building.

"Good Morning Ms. Navarro," I said Sarcastically.

"That's not my God damned name," she shrieked."My last name is Burton, just like yours. Who the fuck is she?" she screamed at me. "I've been nice enough to let you play your little game, and have your little divorce. But you're going too Damned far with this shit. I will not put up with you cheating on me. I'm your wife for fuck's sake. What do you think you're doing. You need to get rid of that bitch today. Or I will."

She stood there in a long fur coat. Glaring at me as I refused to even look up from my screen. Actually I did find it interesting that Dana already knew about Victoria. She always seemed to know things about me. But this was something more. I'd assumed for a while that someone in my building had been feeding her information, but no one in the building knew.

"Dana are you intending to just stand there glaring at me all day," I asked. she didn't say anything. I pushed a button on my desk and Myrna my secretary came in.

"Myrna, can you turn down the heat in the office a couple of degrees? Ms. Navarro is making it really hot in here with all of the steam coming out of her ears. And maybe you should bring her a chair and some coffee, it looks like she's going to be there for awhile."

"Yes sir," she said. "Do you think Ms. Navarro would like cream and sugar?"

"My fucking name is not Navarro, any fucking more," screamed Dana. "We're still fucking married whether you like it or not. So you may as well get used to the idea and start acting like it, before we're too old to have any babies. And stop bringing other women home with you." Dana turned on one spike heel and stalked out of the office slamming the door just as loudly on her way out as she did on the way in.

Myrna smiled up at me after Dana left, "Is what she said true? did you really go out and meet someone finally?"

"Yes Myrna," I smiled, "I went out and met someone."

"No wonder you're so damned happy, but why'd you tell the wicked witch of the west?"

"That's just it Myrna, I haven't told anyone. I need you to find me a very good PI firm. I'm going to go ahead and go to my morning meeting, then I'm off for the day. I'll probably be home at about five. Bring a couple, maybe three in, and interview them. Have whoever you pick at my loft at 6.

The morning meeting was usually great for me, today I found it boring. I just couldn't wait to get out of there, and get home. I hadn't been this excited about leaving work since before I'd discovered that Dana was cheating on me.

An Hour later after a shortened meeting the garage door opened and I saw her sitting there on my sofa. With her arms crossed over those incredible breasts. I closed the car door and walked over to her. I was slightly taken aback by the fire in those green eyes. She was pissed about something. I wondered what it was about me that made every woman I knew just get pissed at me.

"Hi," I said softly. She erupted in a flurry of babbling and tears. I didn't know what to do so I pulled her over to me and hugged her. She tried to get away but I wouldn't let her so finally she calmed down.

"What's wrong Victoria?" I asked.

"I thought we had a deal," she said.

"We do," I replied looking at her.

"Then why did you leave money on the counter, like I was still a whore?" she screamed. "I had a nice dream, I dreamed that I was all warm and happy, lying in a nice bed, and that you..." she started sniffling. "Then I went down stairs this morning and found your note and the money. And then that evil bitch was outside yelling for me to come out. so I pretended not to be here." she cried.

"What evil bitch?" I asked already knowing the answer.

"She had on a long fur coat and she was screaming that you didn't need me because you had her. And she's really pretty looking so I thought that maybe you'd found someone else. and that was why you left me the money." she said wiping a tear.

"Victoria, that was Dana, my crazy ex-wife," I said. "I only left the money in case you had changed your mind, about our deal. I haven't, so can we go shopping now? You need some clothes badly, every time you breathe I think your breasts are going to come out of that shirt."

She looked at me warily and followed me to the car. "I was a little confused about what was real and what I had just dreamed," she said. "Sorry I doubted you." she said as she sat down next to me. She settled down into the Mustang's soft leather interior. "Did you kiss me goodbye, this morning, or was that part of the dream?"

"Sorry, I did do that," I said.

"Non-public kisses cost extra," she said smirking. "I'll start a tab for you."

I've always hated shopping, and expected today to be more of the same. I was pleasantly surprised though because shopping with Victoria was a different experience. She was frugal, she insisted on trying on every single piece of clothing and modeling it for me. Before we'd found the first outfit, getting her a couple of good bras to hold those breasts in was a priority. We bought her skirts, dresses, pants jeans, blouses, sweaters, shoes, boots and of course under wear. She was too embarrassed to go into a lingerie store, so we bought her panties and bras from the regular clothing store. I kept all of the receipts and presented them to her when we were done. The total was just slightly north of 4 thousand dollars. Her eyes bugged out when she saw the bill.

"This one is on me," I told her. "But the rest of your clothes, except for the ones bought specifically for company functions, are on you."

"I was going to give it back to over the next week," she said.

"How?" I asked her, looking at her suspiciously.

"Well those morning kisses of yours are five hundred dollars each," she laughed. "I figured that by the end of the week, we'd be even."

That left us with 2 problems, the first being that we had to arrange to have all of her clothing except for the most essential items delivered because there was no way to fit most of the stuff in my car. We'd left most of the items in the stores and made a list of which stores we had to go back to. Most of the stores also didn't deliver. So I called Myrna explained the situation and told her to handle it.

Armed with the few packages that we could fit into the Mustang's tiny backseat and tinier trunk, we headed for home. Our second problem was that we didn't have time to food shop, because we had to be home by six. We decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, which made Victoria smile.

"Do you always drive this fast," she asked me as we flew down the freeway.

"Pretty much," I replied.

We got to the loft only a few minutes before the phone rang. Victoria answered it and explained to Pete who she was.

"Hello," I heard her say into the phone. "Hi Pete, I'm Victoria, his new fa... I mean his new girlfriend. Yep he's here. We just got back." She looked at me and I nodded.

"Yes Pete he's expecting them send them back." She put the phone down and smiled at me. "I charge extra for answering the phone too." Then she ran upstairs.

There was a brief knock on the interior door a few minutes later. I opened it and ushered in two men and an attractive brunette. The men were not what I expected. When you think of Private investigators you think of some wrinkled old gumshoe. Maybe you see a Humphrey Bogart type who's lived too much of life, and seen it from all sides. These people were not like that. One of the men looked as if he'd just stepped out of a college class. The other looked like a business man, and the brunette, she was too beautiful to just sit in an office listening to tapes of people cheating on their wives.

When she smiled at me, I smiled back at her. "Okay Mr. Burton, we have some preliminary information from your assistant Mrs. Stevenson, but we'd like to start out if you don't mind by hearing more of the specifics from you."

"Well," I began. "This morning I had a visit from my ex wife. She seems to know more about me and my personal business than I'm comfortable with and I'd like to find out how she knows." They looked at each other, in that manner that people who have worked together for a long time have. The nerdy guy looked at the brunette and she nodded. He excused himself and left the loft.

A few minutes later he came back carrying several cases. He opened them and took out various pieces of equipment and he and the larger man started walking slowly around the loft. The larger man began in the garage area and checked inside and under all of my cars. The smaller nerdy guy started in the kitchen area and worked his way around. The brunette seemed happy to just sit there on my sofa and explain to me what they were doing. When the men were done with their sweeps, they came back and announced that my loft and cars were clean.

"That presents another possible scenario," explained the brunette. "You seem certain that your ex doesn't have a person in the building watching you and reporting on you, which since as you claimed, you came in through your private entrance, seems true. That means that there is the possibility that your ex has a PI firm watching you. That way she'd get reports on where you go, whom you go there with, and when."

"What can you do about that?" I asked.

"Well we could also follow you around and try to spot the people she's hired. On the other hand we could also try to follow the money trail by uhm... investigating her finances and trying to find out who she's paying to follow you around."

"Do both," I said. "I'll also have something else going on and I'll coordinate that with you."

I think the brunette was about to say something, but stopped suddenly. The nerdy guy dropped the device he was holding and it clattered loudly on the floor.

"Holy shit," someone said. It was like all of the air went out of the room. Victoria was slowly coming down the stairs, in a dress that I must have missed when she tried it on. It was a deep sea green color, and though they couldn't see them, I knew it would match the color of her eyes perfectly. The dress was cut very well below the knee which was why she was walking so slowly, but the taper of the dress molded itself to Victoria's nearly obscene curves. The dress was cut low enough in the front to show off her deep inviting cleavage. The shoulders were held by 2 tiny straps which were the only things distracting the eye from all of her alabaster skin. As I looked around the room, I'd expected to see the nerdy guy and his friend staring at her, and they were. What I hadn't expected was to see the brunette staring at her as well. In fact it had been her who made the "Holy shit" comment and she was standing there with her mouth open.

Victoria came into the room and demurely crossed behind the couch I was sitting on. She came around and sat down beside me. She took my hand and looked at our visitors. I don't think any of them were capable or speaking yet.